My family has been making Welsh Potato Stuffing at Thanksgiving for generations. This recipe came over with my family from Wales, and has been handed down through the years. From my memories, it came down from my great-grandmother, Mary Hannah Wetzel, but of course I fondly remember my grandmother and my Mom making it, which is how I learned.

This is another one that’s been around as long as I can remember, and it’s more of an appetizer or item for a party tray. My Grandma Cain’s ham balls are tangy, sweet and savory all at once! Just have to try them to love them – they’re usually the first thing to go when I bring them to any holiday gathering!

Some of my favorite cookbooks are local church cookbooks, and that’s where I got this recipe quite a few years ago, and it’s been a family favorite ever since! It’s on the sweet side (like a sweet cornbread), so not a “salty” corn recipe, like many are. Goes very well with ham!

My grandmother, Virginia Doerr (aka “Grog”), used to make a mincemeat pie for my grandfather every Thanksgiving and Christmas. It always smelled *so* good, but the thought of eating a sweet pie with meat in it just kind of grossed me out as a kid. So… last year I saw this on Bon Appetit – a mock mincemeat pie, made totally with fruit. It smelled exactly like my grandmother’s pie, but no meat! Tasted great! The original Bon Appetit recipe did not call for hard sauce, but my grandparents would be rolling over in their graves if there was mincemeat pie and NO hard sauce! *GASP*! Not to mention that hard sauce is just excellent, cause you know, it has alcohol in it.

Enjoy! I’ll post more recipes if I think of them (and/or *locate* them)!

October 22, 2008

Hmm… I’m noticing that I seem to post approximately once a year, when I login to change over to the Digital Divas Halloween theme. My poor, poor languishing blog! Such is the life of a full-time Mom, full-time IT Project Manager, full-time graduate student…maid, cook…etc. Well, one day, I *will* actually finish grad school and hope to have some copious spare time. Meanwhile, don’t write me off yet – give me about another year to finish grad school and post again!

March 7, 2008

We recently acquired a new cat – yes, a Chinese hopping vampire cat! My husband Dougal is a fan of any kind of Japanese and/or Chinese anime or action flicks. He particularly likes the Chinese vampire movies, in which the vampires can’t really walk on the earth, because the good and positive earth repels the vampires’ negativity, or negative “chi“. So, the vampires end up hopping around because the earth repels them. Our new cat apparently shares this characteristic – he seems unable to walk on the ground, and must therefore walk over dressers, end-tables, people, etc. to get from one location to the other. His reluctance to touch the ground, coupled with the fact that he is a black cat and completely nocturnal has led us to the definite conclusion that we own possibly the world’s first Chinese Hopping Vampire Cat.

October 4, 2007

OK, *technically* there aren’t any “grinning ghosts” on my Halloween theme, but you get the idea – the Digital Divas Halloween theme is back! The “grinning ghosts” reference, though, is from the “Haunted Mansion” soundtrack, and I don’t mean the recent Disney movie, I mean the original Disney “Trick or Treat” record (as in album, as in vinyl) that I have. Yes – I still have that album, and thanks to my handy-dandy new Ion USB turntable, I have now taken that album, captured it into my computer, and burned to CD for my kids to enjoy!

June 11, 2007

Come on – you know the rest: “Ask any mermaid, you happen to see – what’s the best tuna? Chicken of the Sea!” Well, you know the rest if you’re somewhere in my age group and grew up in the U.S.

My husband and I watched with amazement as our almost 2-year-old daughter was singing to the Daisy Sour Cream jingle, “Do, do, do, do, do, do a dollop,” and this prompted us to remember many of the jingles we knew as kids, that for better or worse, still live in the crevices of our brains. And we remembered several:

In remembering these jingles, we also remembered the products, which seems rare today. Often, when someone at our dinner table says they saw a “cool commercial” for something, they can describe the commercial, but can’t remember what product it was supposed to be advertising. The jingle may seem simplistic and often annoying, but you have to admit – they get the point across, especially with name-brand recognition, which is half the battle in advertising.

So for better or for worse, which ones do you remember? And do they write ’em like they used to? Other than the Daisy Sour Cream jingle, no recent jingles came to mind (a few slogans, maybe, but no true jingles).

Of course, many of the jingles I remember may in part be because I was young and still hadn’t killed off too many brain cells yet. Oh well, let me know what you think – afterall, wouldn’t you like to be a Pepper too?

March 22, 2007

OK – I haven’t posted in ages, mostly because I have no free time anymore with grad school classes and increased physical therapy appointments for my son. So, there are really many things I could post about, but this important development in chocolate baking warranted at least a quick post on Digital Divas, which might alternately be called “Chocolate Loving Digital Divas.”

Ya know how those “edge” brownies are so good? A bit of crunchy edge, yet still a soft gooey middle? Imagine if you could get an edge brownie every time… imagine no longer! You can indeed get an edge brownie every time with the Baker’s Edge pan! Technology rules!

Here are some very positive reviews from buyers on Amazon.com, with suggestions for other uses, like breads and even lasagna! OK – now that I’ve made you think about brownies, bread and lasagna, you may now return to your regularly scheduled day.

November 5, 2006

Now that All Hallow’s Eve has passed, so has the *spooky* Digital Divas halloween theme. Eventually, in my copious spare time (ha, ha), I will make the themes “reader’s choice” so that you may select whichever theme strikes your fancy at the moment. But for now, enjoy being in the pink again!

October 25, 2006

That’s right – Digital Divas is temporarily *not* pink! Welcome to the Halloween Theme (which may well be the Thanksgiving and Christmas themes too, since I’m now in grad school and barely have time to post much less create new themes).

Anyway, I worked on the graphics for this theme before classes started, so that’s how I was able to get this up. Well, that and a little help from my husband, Dougal,who said, “I know you’re swamped right now – would you like me to upload your Halloween theme?” Being the WordPress God that he is, I knew I could obviously trust him and jumped at the chance to actually get this theme up before Halloween. In addition to Dougal, I’d also like to credit some fellow iStockphoto artists for their contributions, first, Amanda Bodack, for her wonderful black cat, which reminds me of my beloved Spazmo kitty, and to David Russell, for his spider web and scary dangling spider! (Admit it – you know you were scared!) Both of these artists have great libraries on iStockphoto – take a look if you get a chance!

August 25, 2006

So what do these disparate subjects have to do with each other? Read on!

My family and I recently attended my 20-year high school reunion. (Oops – did I say 20? I meant to say 10!) It was great to see all of our friends from high school, and one nice thing is that my husband went to the same high school (class of 1985), so they were his friends too!

Most of my summer, though, was spent planning for the reunion, including the reunion website. (Hence the lack of postings here.) Working on the site helped me keep up with my PHP skills, as we had several online forms, and also learn some new skills. We had an order form for reunion t-shirts, and had that form transfer/populate data to PayPal, so that classmates could order and pay through PayPal, either with credit/debit card or a PayPal account. This might not sound like a big deal in the grand scheme of web development, but we thought it was pretty nifty to be able to post an online t-shirt order form with the online payment option as well.

The reunion had a Saturday brunch for families, followed by an evening social for the adults. The event was well-planned by not only our beautiful, but smart Homecoming Queen, Jessica Birchfield. Jessica really set out with the right idea – make it fun and affordable, and moreover, flexible. She accepted input from any classmate, and tried to incorporate everyone’s ideas. And best of all – the Saturday evening social was casual dress – no purchasing a formal only to hang in the closet to collect dust after the reunion!

After an evening of shakin’ what our Mama’s gave us, we heard of a good blues band, The Mutt Brothers, playing at a local club, and headed in that direction. (Yes – it was already past midnight and we were *still* awake!) Aside from feeling like we were going to asphyxiate on smoke, we did enjoy the band, which featured guitarist Jack Black! Well, OK, it wasn’t really Jack Black, but given a couple more beers it could’ve been! Actually, his name is Greg Davis, and he’s a friend of one of our classmates, and quite talented too. All of “the Mutts” are extremely talented and we definitely recommend them if you’re looking for an awesome blues band!